a very good read.
The Implications of Russia's New Weapon Systems
http://www.unz.com/article/the-impli...s-new-weapons/
While Western punditry was discussing all those exotic and, no doubt, stunning weapon systems
designed for the delivery of nuclear weapons to any point on the globe with very high precision,
many
true professionals were gasping for the air when the Dagger (Kinzhal) was unveiled.
This is a complete game changer geopolitically, strategically, operationally, tactically and psychologically.
...the Kinzhal is simply shocking in its capabilities.
This, most likely based on the famed Iskander airframe, M=10+ capable, highly maneuverable, aero-ballistic missile
with a range of 2000 kilometers,
carried by MiG-31BMs, just rewrote the book on naval warfare.
It made large surface fleets and combatants obsolete. No, you are not misreading it.
No air-defense or anti-missile system in the world today
(maybe with the exception of the upcoming S-500 specifically designed for the interception of hyper-sonic targets)
is capable of doing anything about it, and, most likely, it will take decades to find the antidote.
More specifically, no modern or perspective air-defense system deployed today by any NATO fleet
can intercept even a single missile with such characteristics.
A salvo of 5-6 such missiles guarantees the destruction of any Carrier Battle Group or any other surface group, for that matter–
all this without use of nuclear munitions.
The modernization program of MiG-31s to BM was in full steam for some years now, with front line Air Force units seeing a considerable inflow of these aircraft. It is clear now why such modernization was undertaken–
it made MiG-31BMs into launch platforms for the Kinzhal.
The immediate strategic consequences of Kinzhal’s operational deployment are as follows:
►It finally contains aircraft carriers into a confined niche of power projection against weak and defenseless adversaries,
and
away from the sea zones of Russia, be it the Mediterranean, Pacific or North Atlantic.
►This also means a complete no-go zone for any of the 33 Aegis-equipped US Navy destroyers and cruisers
which are crucial for American Ballistic Missile Defense;
►It makes classic CBGs as a main strike force against a peer or near-peer completely obsolete and useless,
►it also makes any surface combat ship defenseless regardless of its air-defense or anti-missile capabilities.
►It completely annuls hundreds of billions of dollars investment into those platforms and weapons
(which suddenly become nothing more than fat defenseless targets.)
►The whole concept of Air-Sea Battle, aka Joint Concept for Access and Maneuver in the Global Commons (JAM-GC) becomes simply useless.
This is a doctrinal and fiscal catastrophe.
►Sea Control and Sea Denial change their nature and merge.
Those who have such weapons, simply own vast spaces of the sea limited by the ranges of the Kinzhal and its carriers.
►It removes completely any crucial surface support for submarines in the area, exposing them for Patrol/ASW aviation and surface ships.
The effect is multiplicative and it is profound.
The Kinzhal effectively removes any non-suicidal surface force thousands of miles away from Russia’s shores and renders its capabilities irrelevant.
In layman’s lingo that means only one thing—the US Navy’s whole surface component becomes a complete hollow force
good only for parades and flag demonstration near and in the littorals of weak and underdeveloped nations.
....and this could be done for a tiny fraction of the astronomical costs of US platforms and weapons.
Russia’s actions are dictated by only one cause–to pull a gun on a drunk, rowdy, knife wielding bully in the bar
and get him to pay attention to what others may have to say.
In other words, Russia brought the gun to a knife fight and it seems that this is the only way to deal with the United States today.
If warnings and the demonstration of Russian military-technological superiority will have an effect, as was the Russian intent from the beginning,
some sensible conversation on the new world order may start between key geopolitical players.
The world cannot afford any more a pretentious, self-aggrandizing and hollow bully which knows not what it does
and threatens the world’s stability and peace.
American self-proclaimed hegemony is over where it really matters for any real and perceived hegemon—the military field.
It was over for some time now, it just took Putin’s speech to demonstrate the good old Al Capone truism that:
"one can get much further with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone."
After all, Russia did try a kind word alone, it didn’t work and the United States has only itself to blame.
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Originally Posted by goldenequity
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